Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / Serial Killer Documentary - Convicted murderer Mary Rice talks killing spree along Florida-Alabama coast, claims innocence

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Serial Killer Documentary - Convicted murderer Mary Rice talks killing spree along Florida-Alabama coast, claims innocence · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:05
Speaker 1: My name is Mary Rice, M-A-R-Y Rice, R-I-C-E.
0:10
Speaker 2: And like I said, if there's anything you don't want
0:11
Speaker 2: to talk about, just let me know. But to start,
0:14
Speaker 2: tell me a little bit about you and who you are.
0:17
Speaker 1: Okay, so how deep would you like me to go
0:19
Speaker 1: in on that? Because we can go pretty deep.
0:21
Speaker 2: Well, so we have a lot of questions. So let's
0:24
Speaker 2: just start with kind of a short synopsis of who
0:27
Speaker 2: you are, and then we'll kind of go through. I think,
0:29
Speaker 2: did she send you some of my questions that I
0:30
Speaker 2: had sent her? I have a couple additional, but that's
0:33
Speaker 2: a majority of what I have.
0:35
Speaker 1: Okay.
0:35
Speaker 2: So start with telling me a little bit about you.
0:37
Speaker 1: Okay, so I've been through a lot of trauma in
0:40
Speaker 1: my life and everything. And I was married and divorced.
0:45
Speaker 1: And basically, I'm a mom. So my children are my
0:48
Speaker 1: life and I'm a mom.
0:51
Speaker 2: How many kids do you have?
0:52
Speaker 1: I have, I had four. Two have passed away. One
0:56
Speaker 1: since I've been here five years ago. And I have
1:00
Speaker 1: two living.
1:01
Speaker 2: I'm sorry about your loss.
1:03
Speaker 3: Thanks.
1:03
Speaker 2: How old are your babies that are with us still?
1:06
Speaker 1: So my baby just turned 18. And then my oldest
1:09
Speaker 1: just turned 25. And I have two wonderful grandbabies. Awesome. Yes.
1:14
Speaker 2: And so....
1:17
Speaker 1: Let me go through this.
1:18
Speaker 2: Tell me a little bit. And I did read Rachel
1:20
Speaker 2: sent me through your appellate testimony. So I did read
1:24
Speaker 2: through some of that to try and refresh myself a
1:26
Speaker 2: little bit. Tell me a little bit about how you
1:28
Speaker 2: met Billy.
1:30
Speaker 1: So I met Billy. I went to Tara Freeman, for
1:35
Speaker 1: which is one of my really good friends, Herman Jeffrey Stubbs,
1:40
Speaker 1: his girlfriend. So she had come over to my house
1:43
Speaker 1: and she had asked me if I wanted to go
1:45
Speaker 1: visit him in Santa Rosa County Jail. He was locked
1:48
Speaker 1: up at the time and I said I did. So
1:50
Speaker 1: we both, I went with her and we went to
1:53
Speaker 1: visit him. While we were there, Billy Boyette popped up
1:58
Speaker 1: on the screen and just like popped up and jetted
2:02
Speaker 1: down like in the little corner. And he was like,
2:05
Speaker 1: this is a friend of mine and he wanted to
2:07
Speaker 1: know if I would write him because Billy I wrote
2:10
Speaker 1: people in prison. My brother was in prison, and I
2:12
Speaker 1: was part of a prison writing ministry at St. Mary's Episcopal.
2:17
Speaker 1: We would do God letters to people. We would write
2:20
Speaker 1: people uplifting letters, everything, and I was part of that.
2:23
Speaker 1: I also ran the daycare at St. Mary's for a
2:26
Speaker 1: very long time. So it was something that we did,
2:29
Speaker 1: and they would go in, and they would see people
2:31
Speaker 1: that were approved would go in and see them and
2:33
Speaker 1: pray for them while they were locked up and everything.
2:36
Speaker 1: So I was like, sure, I didn't mind, and I
2:38
Speaker 1: helped a lot of people You know, I had resources
2:41
Speaker 1: through the church and other things to where I could
2:43
Speaker 1: help people get clothes, the whole nine yards, help them,
2:46
Speaker 1: you know, with the banks for food, help them do
2:50
Speaker 1: food stamps and everything else because I'd gone through some
2:52
Speaker 1: of that stuff myself, being a single mom, you know.
2:56
Speaker 1: So I told him, sure, I would ride him and everything. So,
3:01
Speaker 1: and then after I rode him, I rode him one time,
3:04
Speaker 1: then my brother, I talked to my brother on the phone.
3:07
Speaker 1: My brother was in prison and When I talked to
3:10
Speaker 1: my brother, he was like, stop riding him. Don't ride
3:13
Speaker 1: him anymore. And I was like, why? Why don't you
3:17
Speaker 1: want me riding him? And he was like, well, so
3:20
Speaker 1: my brother was into a lot of things and he
3:23
Speaker 1: had gotten in trouble. He was in prison. So he
3:26
Speaker 1: had told me to stop riding him.
3:28
Speaker 3: So I stopped riding him.
3:30
Speaker 1: I had told Jeff that I wouldn't ride him anymore.
3:35
Speaker 1: And he was like, well, why? But my brother had
3:37
Speaker 1: told me that they had business dealing gone wrong. And
3:41
Speaker 1: there was some money short. There was an argument. There
3:44
Speaker 1: was guns drawn. The whole nine yards that he had
3:47
Speaker 1: basically a vendetta against him or what. Israel James was
3:52
Speaker 1: his partner on a lot of things and one of
3:54
Speaker 1: his best friends. And Billy Boyette, apparently, I would find
3:58
Speaker 1: this out, you know, through my brother, in that he
4:01
Speaker 1: had attacked him with a catclaw, and there was, like,
4:04
Speaker 1: reports and everything. They had went to jail. Israel did
4:07
Speaker 1: and him. It was a violent scene, everything else. I
4:11
Speaker 1: would find out more about him later on. I really
4:14
Speaker 1: didn't know anything about him. So I was like, okay.
4:16
Speaker 1: So I wrote Jeff, and I was like, I'm... I'm
4:19
Speaker 1: not going to write him anymore. Can you let him know?
4:22
Speaker 1: So he was like, okay, I will. And when Billy
4:25
Speaker 1: had wrote me, he had wrote me asking me if
4:27
Speaker 1: I could help him and everything else when he got out.
4:30
Speaker 1: That never happened. So I never made contact like that
4:34
Speaker 1: with him when he got out.
4:36
Speaker 2: After that whole thing happened and your brother had kind
4:39
Speaker 2: of given you that warning, how did it come about
4:42
Speaker 2: to where he knew where you lived and was coming
4:45
Speaker 2: to your house?
4:46
Speaker 1: Well, the first letter that I had wrote him, my
4:48
Speaker 1: address was on there. So I couldn't do anything about that.
4:52
Speaker 1: The damage was already done through the very first letter.
4:55
Speaker 1: So I couldn't take that back after it was done. Okay.
5:01
Speaker 2: Pardon if I kind of go around because because of
5:03
Speaker 2: the short time, I'm going to kind of jump a
5:05
Speaker 2: little bit because I have read through your version of events.
5:08
Speaker 2: So I don't want to take 25, 30 minutes talking
5:11
Speaker 2: through quite all of that and then maybe some of
5:14
Speaker 2: this important stuff. Talk to me a little bit about
5:18
Speaker 2: I know he threatened your family.
5:20
Speaker 1: Yes.
5:22
Speaker 2: At any point, did you find out if there was
5:24
Speaker 2: any truth to that?
5:25
Speaker 1: OK, so he had told me that he had there
5:29
Speaker 1: was an abandoned house. place somewhere along the road where
5:33
Speaker 1: my ex-mother-in-law had stayed. He told me that there was
5:36
Speaker 1: someone staying in it and that was watching my kids.
5:39
Speaker 1: He knew where my kids went to school. He knew
5:41
Speaker 1: what bus they rode. He knew what time that they
5:44
Speaker 1: went to school, that they got out of school. He
5:46
Speaker 1: knew where my mom worked. He knew where she lived.
5:49
Speaker 1: My mom told me later on, after all this, she
5:52
Speaker 1: had told me that she had seen him in the
5:54
Speaker 1: store When she seen a picture of him on the TV,
5:57
Speaker 1: she was like, oh, my God, I remember that guy
5:59
Speaker 1: because he stood off. He kind of acted weird. And
6:02
Speaker 1: she remembered him coming into the store and like scoping
6:05
Speaker 1: it out, you know, and made her kind of feel uncomfortable.
6:07
Speaker 1: But she did at the time. She didn't think anything of.
6:10
Speaker 3: It, you know, until later on. And then she was like, oh,
6:12
Speaker 3: my God, that was him.
6:14
Speaker 1: So he definitely had followed her, you know, places and
6:18
Speaker 1: she had noticed. And he knew where my brother was
6:21
Speaker 1: in prison. And he was connected. He had been in
6:23
Speaker 1: and out of prison, so he knew people. So he
6:26
Speaker 1: had someone watching my.
6:27
Speaker 2: Brother as well.
6:29
Speaker 1: And whenever he told me that, I believed him with everything.
6:34
Speaker 1: And what was the second.
6:36
Speaker 2: Part of the question? Do you know if he actually, like,
6:38
Speaker 2: after everything ended, do you know if he was telling
6:41
Speaker 2: you the truth? Did he have someone actually there watching,
6:43
Speaker 2: or was that just him using a ruse?
6:45
Speaker 1: Okay, so I had told the detectives... And I told
6:49
Speaker 1: my lawyer at the time, for which was Kenneth Brooks.
6:51
Speaker 1: I told them about that. And I told them, please,
6:54
Speaker 1: go look. Go look across the street from Norma's. Go
6:58
Speaker 1: check everything out. I told him, you know, whenever they
7:01
Speaker 1: did the interview with the deposition with Mr. Hunt, I
7:05
Speaker 1: guess he was in the apartment above where everything had happened,
7:11
Speaker 1: I guess. I learned this in trial. He had said
7:14
Speaker 1: something about a guy had come and visited him. They
7:17
Speaker 1: never followed up on that. They never followed up on
7:19
Speaker 1: the leads that I told them about going and checking
7:22
Speaker 1: about an empty place to see if there was any
7:25
Speaker 1: remains of anything, you know, cigarette buds, if there was
7:28
Speaker 1: any garbage that was left behind, anything that showed where
7:32
Speaker 1: someone had been sitting there. You know, for an extensive
7:35
Speaker 1: period of time, you know, there would be stuff there.
7:38
Speaker 1: And I told them, you know, could you please go
7:41
Speaker 1: and check this out? And Mr. Brooks was like, oh,
7:44
Speaker 1: I do all my detective work by myself, so I'll go.
7:47
Speaker 1: And he never did. They never followed up on it. Nothing.
7:52
Speaker 2: So you don't know if there was someone watching your
7:54
Speaker 2: family as he said there was?
7:57
Speaker 1: I mean, I know what he said. And I believed
8:00
Speaker 1: it with the way he treated me and everything happened
8:03
Speaker 1: on my eight-day nightmare. Yes, absolutely. I believed that there
8:07
Speaker 1: was definitely someone on the other end of that phone
8:10
Speaker 1: that he could call. And if he did make that
8:12
Speaker 1: phone call, they wouldn't have had time to call the
8:14
Speaker 1: police because someone running up in your house, they could
8:18
Speaker 1: get six rounds off on you. Before you could even breathe. Yeah,
8:22
Speaker 1: he could have killed everyone in the house. And that
8:25
Speaker 1: was not a chance I was willing to take after
8:27
Speaker 1: losing a child already.
8:28
Speaker 2: And that was what I was going to ask, because
8:31
Speaker 2: I don't know if I read it in your testimony
8:33
Speaker 2: or if I listened to a podcast where you mentioned it,
8:36
Speaker 2: but you said something about if you were to have
8:39
Speaker 2: told anybody in any of the stores you were in
8:40
Speaker 2: or the places that you went that you were afraid
8:43
Speaker 2: the cops couldn't outrun that phone call.
8:45
Speaker 1: Right. You can't outrun a phone call when someone calls someone.
8:48
Speaker 1: That's immediate. Right. It's not like you walk down the
8:51
Speaker 1: road and then you have to walk back. That's right then.
8:54
Speaker 1: That's okay. They hang up and they're out the door.
8:57
Speaker 1: You can't outrun that. Just like you can't outrun a
8:59
Speaker 1: place radio or anything else. You just, you can't.
9:03
Speaker 2: Did you ever think about leaving notes that way? Like
9:06
Speaker 2: when you and he left a place, they left it
9:08
Speaker 2: behind where he couldn't see that you had done something.
9:10
Speaker 1: Okay. So he paid the way that he parked in
9:13
Speaker 1: a lot of spots and the places that he went to,
9:15
Speaker 1: he was in Walmart with me. So he would have
9:17
Speaker 1: seen anything. And whenever we went to, like, GNC, there
9:21
Speaker 1: was big, huge windows. I mean, he could see everything
9:24
Speaker 1: in there. He parked right up front. He had a
9:26
Speaker 1: gun on us the whole time. He would have shot
9:28
Speaker 1: through that glass. He would have killed the person in
9:30
Speaker 1: there along with me, no doubt in my mind. So
9:34
Speaker 1: he watched everything that we'd done. And if I would
9:37
Speaker 1: have slipped something to someone, and I wasn't willing to
9:40
Speaker 1: risk my family, because at this point, it's like, I should,
9:46
Speaker 1: I'm missing. I know I'm missing. I know my family
9:48
Speaker 1: knows that I'm missing. The shape that I looked in,
9:51
Speaker 1: you know, it was like, how could someone just look
9:56
Speaker 1: at me and be like, okay, everything's fine. I had
9:58
Speaker 1: a black eye. I had, you know, I was, busted
10:00
Speaker 1: up pretty bad talking to these people at GNC. I
10:04
Speaker 1: gave them my full name, my address. I'm on the
10:07
Speaker 1: TV at this point. I know I am because it's
10:10
Speaker 1: already days into this. You know, there has to be
10:12
Speaker 1: a misdemeanor person's report because I know my family. If
10:15
Speaker 1: I don't talk to them every single day, they're wondering
10:17
Speaker 1: where I am, what's going on. the whole nine yards.
10:20
Speaker 1: And then I didn't show up for work. Absolutely, there's
10:23
Speaker 1: something going on. And there was a missing person to report,
10:26
Speaker 1: I found out. So with that, I'm all over the news.
10:30
Speaker 1: So I'm figuring I'm in public. I'm trying to take
10:33
Speaker 1: my time, but do what I need to do. I'm
10:36
Speaker 1: figuring someone could call because if I do, then I
10:40
Speaker 1: could take a chance of my kids dying. And then, okay,
10:44
Speaker 1: then I would be free. But then I would be
10:46
Speaker 1: visiting my whole family in a grave. Now what, where's
10:50
Speaker 1: the justice in that?
10:53
Speaker 2: So one of the things that has gone back and
10:56
Speaker 2: forth in the public eye is whether you were in
10:59
Speaker 2: a relationship with Billy or not. Why do people say
11:03
Speaker 2: that you were in a relationship with him?
11:05
Speaker 1: Okay, so the state said that I was in a
11:08
Speaker 1: relationship with him, but I was not in a relationship
11:11
Speaker 1: with him. Let me get that straight. His girlfriend was
11:15
Speaker 1: Alicia Greer. It was not Mary Rice. It was Alicia Greer.
11:21
Speaker 1: And I had met her one time whenever they had
11:23
Speaker 1: come to my place to pick up Jeffrey Stubbs from
11:26
Speaker 1: my house.
11:28
Speaker 2: And talk a little bit. I did hear in the
11:29
Speaker 2: podcast you mentioned about some of the text messages that
11:32
Speaker 2: they didn't look like anything you had ever seen before.
11:36
Speaker 1: No, you text like you talk. And these messages I
11:39
Speaker 1: had never seen. So I have paperwork here. where Detective Bainey,
11:47
Speaker 1: this was one of my amended grounds to my 3850.
11:51
Speaker 1: It says, newly discovered evidence, the termination of Officer Jimmy
11:57
Speaker 1: Tatum for untruthfulness and criminal mischief. So whenever you put
12:03
Speaker 1: something up, there was a lot of the text messages
12:06
Speaker 1: that had times and date stamps on them. Some of
12:09
Speaker 1: them didn't. Some of the pictures were out of my
12:12
Speaker 1: gallery that I had never sent to anyone. So with this,
12:16
Speaker 1: I have paperwork. So I wrote my lawyer and I
12:20
Speaker 1: have paperwork where they sent me that about my case
12:24
Speaker 1: that they were, yes, he was untruthful in my case
12:27
Speaker 1: and everything. And I have paperwork here. I have paperwork
12:33
Speaker 1: here for, it wasn't just my case. It was other
12:35
Speaker 1: people's cases with the state's attorney. and Mr. Brooks, where
12:41
Speaker 1: they were talking things over. But unless I had requested
12:43
Speaker 1: this and I heard this, I just so happened to
12:45
Speaker 1: hear this. But I told him in court that day,
12:49
Speaker 1: I didn't say that. I didn't send that. That's out
12:52
Speaker 1: of my gallery. I never sent that to anyone. That
12:54
Speaker 1: was a picture, personal picture that I had taken that
12:56
Speaker 1: I had never sent anyone. And then he writes me
12:59
Speaker 1: back and he says, he tells me, I did receive
13:07
Speaker 1: the information from the state attorney's office on Officer Tatum
13:12
Speaker 1: was terminated from his position with the Escambia County Sheriff's
13:16
Speaker 1: Office for untruthfulness and criminal mischief. Enclosed is a notice
13:22
Speaker 1: of the copy of the investigation. I received the report
13:25
Speaker 1: and nothing in it appears to have bearing on your
13:29
Speaker 1: case except for he was untruthful in your case. I
13:32
Speaker 1: hope this information is helpful. Okay, well, if you were
13:35
Speaker 1: untruthful in my case, you were the head investigator in
13:38
Speaker 1: my case. So that means that you're tampering with things,
13:41
Speaker 1: you're lying about things to make it a story that
13:45
Speaker 1: fits you. Because basically what it comes down to is
13:49
Speaker 1: how can a state attorney tell me what went on
13:52
Speaker 1: on this eight day nightmare? How can you tell me
13:55
Speaker 1: my story and my testimony? You can't, you weren't there.
13:59
Speaker 1: Only I can tell you what happened to me, not you.
14:03
Speaker 2: With that, have you been able to use that in
14:06
Speaker 2: any sort of appeals?
14:07
Speaker 1: So I sent this. This was part of my 3850,
14:11
Speaker 1: and the courts felt like they accepted it. It was
14:16
Speaker 1: timely done. It's amended, and this is my copy of it.
14:22
Speaker 1: And I sent it in. It was timely done, and
14:25
Speaker 1: it was added to my 3850 along with the... I
14:31
Speaker 1: have so many grounds, so many grounds that if I
14:34
Speaker 1: had had my discovery that I would have been, I
14:37
Speaker 1: would have brought these things up because I would have
14:39
Speaker 1: went through my stuff. But, you know, Mr. Brooks decided
14:43
Speaker 1: that I didn't need to participate in my case. I
14:46
Speaker 1: didn't need my discovery. I didn't need any of these things.
14:49
Speaker 1: He didn't need to go over anything with me. He
14:52
Speaker 1: just had me sit in jail for two years almost,
14:56
Speaker 1: and not go over anything. When he came to see me,
14:58
Speaker 1: he would be like, I know you're innocent. I'm working
15:01
Speaker 1: on getting you home. He would tell my family the
15:03
Speaker 1: same thing until the very last time he came to
15:06
Speaker 1: see me. And then he was real smug like, like
15:09
Speaker 1: he wasn't gonna help me, like you're lying, you're this. No,
15:13
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm telling you everything and I really need
15:16
Speaker 1: my stuff.
15:17
Speaker 2: Well, I had a couple questions about him, but on
15:20
Speaker 2: that form where it talks about the detective that was fired.
15:24
Speaker 1: Yes, would you like a copy of these? Sure.
15:28
Speaker 2: Are they going to allow you to use that for
15:30
Speaker 2: a type of an appeal?
15:31
Speaker 1: See, so it says Exhibit D. They have to because
15:36
Speaker 1: it's already part of the original motion. So, but Escambia
15:40
Speaker 1: County doesn't like it whenever you talk about their officers
15:42
Speaker 1: or anything else. You know, they're big boys, they stay together.
15:45
Speaker 1: And with that, they didn't address this. They didn't feel
15:49
Speaker 1: like they needed to address it any further, but it
15:52
Speaker 1: does need to be addressed.
15:53
Speaker 2: So are you still in the appeals process?
15:55
Speaker 1: I am in the re-hearing process. So I went to
15:59
Speaker 1: court and I have transcripts from where I went to
16:02
Speaker 1: court on September 14th. 2022 I think I have I
16:09
Speaker 1: think that's the one that Rachel sent me okay so
16:12
Speaker 1: and this all should be public record I don't understand
16:15
Speaker 1: why they have my record sealed because the public should
16:19
Speaker 1: be able to see all this stuff is it because
16:22
Speaker 1: the an officer was involved was it because my blood
16:24
Speaker 1: work wasn't you know brought up or anything I'm really
16:28
Speaker 1: unsure because it should not be sealed they should The
16:31
Speaker 1: public should be able to see all this stuff. You
16:33
Speaker 1: can see all the bad stuff, but you can't see
16:35
Speaker 1: any of the good stuff. That's crazy to me.
16:37
Speaker 2: So let's talk a little bit about Mr. Brooks so
16:39
Speaker 2: that I'll move to a different topic. Thank you.
16:43
Speaker 3: Did you end up filing a complaint on him of any.
16:46
Speaker 2: Sort because of the lack of allowing participation and the
16:52
Speaker 2: lack of really including you in your own defense?
16:56
Speaker 1: I did with the Florida Bar. I did file something.
17:01
Speaker 1: But they were like, if you don't win your 3850 motion,
17:04
Speaker 1: then we're not going to do anything. So they basically
17:08
Speaker 1: did not look into it. They dismissed it. At this time,
17:11
Speaker 1: I'm not planning on filing anything against him. I'm not
17:14
Speaker 1: going to say that I'm not going to file anything
17:16
Speaker 1: against him. I'm just saying right now I'm more focused
17:20
Speaker 1: on my freedom and letting them see what should have
17:27
Speaker 1: been done and that I'm not guilty of this.
17:30
Speaker 2: Well, and part of the issue with him is that
17:32
Speaker 2: you were examined by this doctor. I don't remember if
17:35
Speaker 2: he was a psychiatrist or psychologist.
17:36
Speaker 1: Yes, I have that paperwork.
17:37
Speaker 2: And that was never introduced at your trial. What were
17:43
Speaker 2: the results from him? What did he have to say?
17:46
Speaker 1: So I have the report here. That was a ground
17:54
Speaker 1: that I had had as well. And that was, counsel
18:03
Speaker 1: was ineffective for failing to call expert Steven Zimmerman as
18:09
Speaker 1: a witness. And he had done this, he had done
18:16
Speaker 1: a report on me for all the trauma that I
18:18
Speaker 1: had from four on for the rapes, the molestation, the abuse.
18:26
Speaker 1: everything that I've had throughout my life and everything, and
18:30
Speaker 1: he puts in here that I have PTSD, that I
18:34
Speaker 1: have trauma issues, serious issues going on in my life,
18:39
Speaker 1: and that I'm a survivor, and that, if anything, that
18:42
Speaker 1: people should know that.
18:43
Speaker 2: Do you think that should have been introduced at your trial?
18:46
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Absolutely, I do. And he believed as well. He
18:50
Speaker 1: was very, I had seen him the day before, and
18:53
Speaker 1: he was like, He was putting the report together and
18:56
Speaker 1: he was giving it to Mr. Brooks and everything he said.
18:59
Speaker 1: But Mr. Brooks, his attitude had changed towards him and everything.
19:03
Speaker 1: And we spent a lot of time with this. I
19:05
Speaker 1: went through a lot of painful stuff with this man,
19:08
Speaker 1: you know, to where he could diagnose me. And this
19:10
Speaker 1: was Mr. Brooks's idea. And then you don't want to
19:13
Speaker 1: use this person. What changed?
19:21
Speaker 2: Do you think that would have had a impact on
19:24
Speaker 2: the jury in their decision making?
19:26
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. If they had known my childhood and
19:31
Speaker 1: they had known the trauma that I've already lived through,
19:34
Speaker 1: you know, that I've already had a child pass away,
19:37
Speaker 1: you know, that I was molested, that I was raped,
19:39
Speaker 1: that everything that I've been through in my lifetime as
19:42
Speaker 1: to why I made the decisions that I made during
19:46
Speaker 1: this trip, you know, that I was on, that I
19:49
Speaker 1: still this is a nightmare that is still going on
19:53
Speaker 1: even to this day. It has not stopped because I
19:55
Speaker 1: went from that to custody to here. It still continues
20:02
Speaker 1: every single day. Every day that I wake up in
20:04
Speaker 1: here is my reminder. of what this man did, and
20:11
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here on principle to his crimes. That's crazy
20:15
Speaker 1: to me. How can you take a victim, an innocent person,
20:19
Speaker 1: and put them in prison because he killed himself and
20:22
Speaker 1: you want someone to blame? That's crazy. How did they
20:26
Speaker 1: get away with that? I would like to know that.
20:28
Speaker 1: I really would.
20:30
Speaker 2: Well, and I know that the.
20:32
Speaker 2: I'll have you go through kind of your version of
20:35
Speaker 2: events here in a minute, but I want to ask
20:37
Speaker 2: just one specified question before we start, was when y'all
20:41
Speaker 2: were at Kayla Crocker's, which is the one main incident
20:46
Speaker 2: that put you here, right?
20:48
Speaker 1: Yes, ma'am.
20:49
Speaker 2: Did you have any idea going into that situation that
20:52
Speaker 2: he was going to kill her?
20:53
Speaker 3: No.
20:53
Speaker 1: No. I stayed so drugged up in and out of
20:59
Speaker 1: things and everything else. I had no idea. I had
21:02
Speaker 1: no idea about the Emerald Sands, what had happened there.
21:05
Speaker 1: I had no idea about that until way later on.
21:09
Speaker 1: And really, until I got to the Sheriff's Department with
21:13
Speaker 1: the detectives and everything else, did I find out about that,
21:16
Speaker 1: to be honest. I mean, towards midway through the thing,
21:22
Speaker 1: the radio had come on. He had turned it off.
21:24
Speaker 1: It had said something about Emerald Sands. He made a
21:26
Speaker 1: comment one time, and the family dollar... with one of
21:31
Speaker 1: the sales assistants, you know, that he killed his girlfriend
21:34
Speaker 1: or anything. So, but still, I still have no knowledge
21:39
Speaker 1: of anything that has happened, you know, because I was
21:43
Speaker 1: unaware of any of it happening. So with Kayla Crocker, no,
21:49
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't think he was going to.
21:52
Speaker 2: So when he had you tie her up, what were
21:55
Speaker 2: you thinking was going to happen in that situation?
21:57
Speaker 1: Okay, so with that, Whenever I came up on the porch,
22:03
Speaker 1: there was a piece of rope there and he did
22:05
Speaker 1: have me, he had a gun to us both. So
22:09
Speaker 1: it's not like I willingly did this or anything. I
22:13
Speaker 1: had a loaded gun on me.
22:16
Speaker 3: And whenever I tied it, I told her I was sorry.
22:19
Speaker 1: And I said, I'm tying this real loose. And I
22:21
Speaker 1: said it real quiet to her. And she was like, thanks.
22:25
Speaker 1: And the one that I tied was in a bow
22:28
Speaker 1: and it was really, really loose on her hands. And
22:31
Speaker 1: then he had me grab food and go to the car.
22:33
Speaker 1: He had reached down after I had done that. He
22:37
Speaker 1: had reached down and he had grabbed the rest of
22:39
Speaker 1: the string, yarn, rope, whatever. And that's what bound her,
22:45
Speaker 1: not what I put on her. She could still move.
22:48
Speaker 1: What the other part that they failed to mention is
22:52
Speaker 1: that there was more than just That one rope. And
22:55
Speaker 1: the one rope that was in a bow was very loose.
22:59
Speaker 1: Like as if you were tying your shoes. And the
23:02
Speaker 1: other one was very tight. I did not put that
23:04
Speaker 1: on her. He did. I was not in that house
23:08
Speaker 1: whenever he shot her. I did hear a gunshot go off.
23:11
Speaker 1: I was at the car. I was not there.
23:13
Speaker 2: What was your reaction when that happened? Shock.
23:17
Speaker 1: I went into shock. Because he had played Russian roulette
23:21
Speaker 1: with me many a times. He would Let the, like
23:26
Speaker 1: in the car, you will see in some of the
23:28
Speaker 1: pictures where there was ammunition on the floorboard and everything else.
23:32
Speaker 1: That's because he had these old style guns. He had
23:35
Speaker 1: three guns. He had two that were old style, six
23:38
Speaker 1: years that went round. And then he had one that locked. So,
23:43
Speaker 1: and that one stayed in the door mainly by him.
23:45
Speaker 1: He had one that he kept in his pants all
23:47
Speaker 1: the time. And then he had one that he would
23:50
Speaker 1: play Russian roulette with me with, and he would empty
23:53
Speaker 1: it out and he would put one bullet in it
23:55
Speaker 1: and he would spin it and he would close it.
23:57
Speaker 1: And then he'd put it to my head. So, and
24:01
Speaker 1: then he would pull the trigger and only by the
24:03
Speaker 1: grace of God, only by the grace of God, am
24:05
Speaker 1: I sitting here today, period.
24:10
Speaker 2: What has it been like for you in these years
24:13
Speaker 2: since trying to process the All of that. I can
24:17
Speaker 2: imagine it is a lengthy process.
24:20
Speaker 1: It is. I still have nightmares. I have a lot
24:24
Speaker 1: of trauma issues. Certain things that I used to like,
24:29
Speaker 1: I don't like anymore. Certain smells bother me. I get
24:34
Speaker 1: real jumpy. But as a person, I just try to
24:39
Speaker 1: move forward and try to be kind to people and
24:41
Speaker 1: be nice to people and not let it destroy who
24:44
Speaker 1: I was and who I want to be.
24:47
Speaker 2: Tell me who that is. Tell me who you want
24:48
Speaker 2: to be.
24:50
Speaker 1: So I work in the law library. And I see
24:54
Speaker 1: since I've been in here, I've seen all the injustice
24:56
Speaker 1: that is done. You know, there are a lot of
24:58
Speaker 1: people in here that do belong in here. But there
25:01
Speaker 1: are some people that don't belong in here that are
25:04
Speaker 1: here because their boyfriend did something or because they were
25:08
Speaker 1: in the wrong place at the wrong time. But they
25:10
Speaker 1: didn't do the crime. But they're here. And I would
25:13
Speaker 1: like to help them people, you know, along with myself.
25:16
Speaker 1: I would like to help. this world is just so
25:19
Speaker 1: corrupt nowadays. Everything is about money. The higher the conviction,
25:24
Speaker 1: the more money in their pocket. And that's wrong. That's
25:27
Speaker 1: not what God put in place in the very beginning
25:29
Speaker 1: whenever he had them come up with the justice system.
25:35
Speaker 2: If you were ever to be paroled earlier, have your
25:38
Speaker 2: conviction set aside, what are some of the things that
25:41
Speaker 2: you may like to do after experiencing this whole thing
25:44
Speaker 2: and considering what you're doing while you're here?
25:47
Speaker 1: I would like to help people. I would like to
25:49
Speaker 1: link up with some of these organizations that look into
25:53
Speaker 1: people's stuff and everything and help them, the ones that
25:56
Speaker 1: are wrongfully convicted. I would like to help them get out.
25:59
Speaker 1: And I know a lot of them don't have money
26:01
Speaker 1: or anything. And I would like to help, you know,
26:04
Speaker 1: raise money and be able to fund things to where
26:07
Speaker 1: I could help get them out.
26:09
Speaker 2: Like the Innocence Project?
26:10
Speaker 1: Kind of like the Innocence Project in wrongfully convictions and
26:13
Speaker 1: exoneration projects. And then they have, let's see, they have
26:19
Speaker 1: Florida Cares that helps as well and everything. So in
26:23
Speaker 1: society first, and they're trying to help people to where
26:27
Speaker 1: they're not spending their whole entire life in here and
26:30
Speaker 1: dying in here.
26:31
Speaker 2: Has your case garnered any attention from those organizations?
26:34
Speaker 1: No.
26:35
Speaker 2: Okay.
26:41
Speaker 1: I haven't reached out to him or anything either. I've
26:44
Speaker 1: put it in God's hands.
26:45
Speaker 2: Yeah. And this kind of goes back to one of
26:49
Speaker 2: the things that we just talked about. You know, victims
26:53
Speaker 2: believe that you were an accomplice in this situation. Is
26:55
Speaker 2: there anything that you've done while you've been in here
26:58
Speaker 2: to make amends or try to share your experience of
27:04
Speaker 2: why you say you were not an accomplice?
27:08
Speaker 1: Um. Like, give me an idea on what you mean
27:13
Speaker 1: by that question.
27:14
Speaker 2: So that question comes from one of my managers. So
27:17
Speaker 2: I'll try to explain it the best I can because
27:19
Speaker 2: I wasn't the one that wrote it. Is there any
27:21
Speaker 2: sort of amends? You know, like AA, when people go
27:24
Speaker 2: through AA, they have amends that they go through. Are
27:27
Speaker 2: there anything that you have done while you're here to
27:29
Speaker 2: make amends to victims?
27:32
Speaker 1: So I've definitely taken counseling courses. I take counseling all
27:37
Speaker 1: the time. At least every 90 days, I'm down there
27:40
Speaker 1: in counseling. I was on psych meds at one point
27:43
Speaker 1: in time until I could get a hold of my
27:45
Speaker 1: emotions because I would have panic attacks, depression. It was bad.
27:52
Speaker 1: My night terrors got the best of me at times.
27:55
Speaker 1: And I live in a dorm with 86 women. So
27:58
Speaker 1: if you scream in the middle of the night, you're
28:00
Speaker 1: waking up 86 women. You kind of want to be
28:03
Speaker 1: friends with them, not be their enemies.
28:06
Speaker 2: So what do you want the families of Billy Boyette's
28:11
Speaker 2: victims to know? What would you say to them if
28:15
Speaker 2: you had a chance to speak with them?
28:16
Speaker 1: I would like them to know that I'm sorry. I'm
28:20
Speaker 1: sorry I couldn't save them. I tried to save as
28:23
Speaker 1: many people as I could on this eight-day nightmare that
28:27
Speaker 1: I was on. If I could have done more, I
28:30
Speaker 1: would have. But I was a victim myself. I was
28:34
Speaker 1: in and out. drugged, not in the right mindset. I
28:40
Speaker 1: did what I had to do. Like when I went
28:42
Speaker 1: into stores, I knew he would come in there shooting
28:44
Speaker 1: people up. He was in there with me. If I
28:46
Speaker 1: did the wrong move, if I did the wrong thing,
28:48
Speaker 1: I just did what I had to do. And I'm
28:51
Speaker 1: so sorry that they are having to be without them
28:56
Speaker 1: because I know how it is to be without someone.
28:59
Speaker 2: Now walk me through, we've gotten through a lot of
29:02
Speaker 2: these questions and we've touched a little bit on various
29:05
Speaker 2: parts of that eight, nine days. Tell me, we don't
29:10
Speaker 2: have to go like full in depth, but kind of
29:11
Speaker 2: give me a walk through of that timeline and what
29:16
Speaker 2: you experienced from when he came to take you through
29:22
Speaker 2: the Troop County incident.
29:24
Speaker 1: So I had, this could take hours.
29:29
Speaker 2: That's what I said. Let's try to keep it as
29:32
Speaker 2: as short, not as short, but like a, a summarized version.
29:40
Speaker 2: Cause I do have your, your appellate testimony. So I
29:42
Speaker 2: have that to refer back to.
29:44
Speaker 1: Okay.
29:45
Speaker 2: Um, but walk, just walk me through kind of, uh, uh,
29:49
Speaker 2: overview of of that timeline.
29:52
Speaker 1: Okay so i had i had people the night that
29:55
Speaker 1: he came and he took me i had a young
29:58
Speaker 1: man jamie ham that was staying in the back bedroom
30:02
Speaker 1: and he was a teenager his mom had passed away
30:05
Speaker 1: and his mom um was a friend of mine robin
30:08
Speaker 1: And when she got out of prison, she was one
30:11
Speaker 1: of the people that I had helped get clothes and
30:13
Speaker 1: stuff like that and everything and get back on her feet.
30:16
Speaker 1: And she had asked me whenever I was staying, I
30:19
Speaker 1: was over there. She was at Dennis Elliott's house. She
30:22
Speaker 1: had asked me if anything ever happens to me, could
30:25
Speaker 1: you make sure that Jamie's okay, you're a good mother,
30:28
Speaker 1: and I trust him with you. So I would help him.
30:31
Speaker 1: I would help him in whatever situation. He was on probation.
30:35
Speaker 1: He needed a place to go. He couldn't stay with
30:36
Speaker 1: his family that he was with. He didn't feel like
30:39
Speaker 1: that was the right environment. It wasn't that he couldn't
30:41
Speaker 1: stay there. It's that he chose that he needed a
30:44
Speaker 1: better environment in order for them to come and see
30:47
Speaker 1: him on probation. So he was staying there with me.
30:50
Speaker 3: So I had someone's.
30:50
Speaker 1: Life from get-go in my hands. that this man comes
30:55
Speaker 1: in with a loaded gun, put it in my face,
30:57
Speaker 1: acting all crazy, I'm worried that Jamie could wake up
31:00
Speaker 1: and he could shoot him. And then I have a friend, Mike,
31:04
Speaker 1: who is a lifelong friend, and he had come by
31:08
Speaker 1: and he wanted me to leave with him because he
31:09
Speaker 1: seen that I was acting kind of funny, but that
31:11
Speaker 1: was because Billy Boyette was behind the door right there
31:15
Speaker 1: where I was at with a gun on us. And
31:17
Speaker 1: I didn't want him to kill us. If I would
31:19
Speaker 1: have walked onto that porch, we would have been shot
31:21
Speaker 1: dead right then and there. This man's crazy out of
31:24
Speaker 1: his mind. Absolutely, I believe that we would have been shot.
31:28
Speaker 1: So from the very beginning, I'm protecting people. I'm, okay,
31:32
Speaker 1: I need to get out of the trailer. I need
31:34
Speaker 1: to get away from this. I need to get these people,
31:37
Speaker 1: make sure that they're safe because their lives are important
31:40
Speaker 1: to me. And I'm used to being a mom. It
31:45
Speaker 1: goes back to being a mom card and protecting your babies,
31:49
Speaker 1: protecting the people that you love. And even strangers. I
31:53
Speaker 1: wouldn't want anything to happen to you. You know, if
31:57
Speaker 1: something crazy popped off. I wouldn't think to run to
32:00
Speaker 1: the authorities right away. I would think to get you
32:02
Speaker 1: to safety. Whether I got shot in the back or not.
32:07
Speaker 1: That's my first thing. Is I would want to make
32:10
Speaker 1: sure that everybody was out of the situation. And then
32:12
Speaker 1: whatever happened, happened. So from there, we end up going back.
32:18
Speaker 1: down south and then back up. In the time that
32:22
Speaker 1: he has me, he beats me, he rapes me, he
32:27
Speaker 1: sadicized me, and he hits me with a pistol. You
32:33
Speaker 1: see how my face is right here? You see this here?
32:37
Speaker 1: You see how my face kind of gets sunk in?
32:40
Speaker 1: Do you see that? A little bit, yeah. Okay, that's
32:43
Speaker 1: from where my face is chipped. That's from the end
32:47
Speaker 1: of a gun. He puts it to my temple and
32:51
Speaker 1: he goes to fire it and it jams. And whenever
32:54
Speaker 1: it does, he turns around and he goes like this
32:57
Speaker 1: and he just hits me with it. My whole eye
33:00
Speaker 1: was black all throughout here. And that was in the
33:03
Speaker 1: beginning part. My eye was still black at the end
33:07
Speaker 1: of this. So that lets you know just how messed
33:10
Speaker 1: up it was during this timeframe because this was almost
33:14
Speaker 1: eight days later and it's still messed up. My bone
33:19
Speaker 1: literally is chipped there. So he cuts me with the
33:23
Speaker 1: knife right here. You see this scar here? From right here,
33:28
Speaker 1: you see it? From where I put my hands up,
33:33
Speaker 1: from where he was hitting me and beating on me.
33:35
Speaker 1: And he pulls a knife out and he just cuts.
33:38
Speaker 1: It starts here and it goes all the way up
33:41
Speaker 1: to here. One time my hand was locking up on me.
33:44
Speaker 1: He was having me roll his spices.
33:47
Speaker 3: And it locks up on me because I'm so dehydrated.
33:49
Speaker 1: I haven't ate. I haven't had water or anything else.
33:52
Speaker 1: I'm just and it's locking up and I can barely
33:55
Speaker 1: get my hand. He cuts it. He tries to take
33:58
Speaker 1: my fingerprints off. I hardly have any fingerprints. You can
34:02
Speaker 1: hardly see any of them. You know, this is eight
34:05
Speaker 1: years later. You know, I've healed, but I still have
34:08
Speaker 1: the scars to all this. You know, I have cigarette
34:11
Speaker 1: burns here and on my feet all over. They look
34:15
Speaker 1: like that. all up and down my legs, cigarette burns.
34:20
Speaker 1: And then I have right here, I have a mark
34:23
Speaker 1: from his tooth where his tooth went in me here
34:26
Speaker 1: through here. See that? That's two teeth marks where he dug,
34:31
Speaker 1: he bit me and he would bite at my face.
34:35
Speaker 1: He drug me by my hair. He strangled me over
34:38
Speaker 1: and over and over again at a motel until I
34:41
Speaker 1: peed on myself and I was unconscious. So I almost died. My,
34:47
Speaker 1: you know, right before you die, you pee on yourself and,
34:50
Speaker 1: you know, your bowels and everything let loose. Like I said,
34:55
Speaker 1: only by the grace of God am I still alive.
34:59
Speaker 1: So I went through a lot and I just, I
35:03
Speaker 1: just tried to protect every, every time that I went
35:06
Speaker 1: in someplace, I just tried to protect the people around
35:09
Speaker 1: me because he's got three guns. Okay. If they hold
35:13
Speaker 1: six rounds, each gun, How many people can you take
35:17
Speaker 1: out in a second? Especially when you're in a Walmart
35:20
Speaker 1: or a CVS or something, you know, and you unload
35:25
Speaker 1: all them clips.
35:27
Speaker 2: That's a lot of people. Walk me through the back half.
35:31
Speaker 2: You get through these first couple of days where you're
35:32
Speaker 2: traveling through the different parts of Florida, going into the stores.
35:37
Speaker 2: Start with me the day that everything happened with Kayla
35:40
Speaker 2: Crocker and walk me through the end. Okay, so.
35:47
Speaker 1: With Kayla Crocker, he needed another ride. He had us
35:51
Speaker 1: stay in this abandoned place off of Nine Mile or
35:57
Speaker 1: Pine Forest or somewhere down in that area. I knew
35:59
Speaker 1: the area kind of because I'd sold shrimp with my
36:02
Speaker 1: ex-mother-in-law for years and years, and we would go to
36:04
Speaker 1: Bala Batry, and we would pick up shrimp, and we
36:06
Speaker 1: would come back, and that was like the first and
36:08
Speaker 1: last chance exit. You know, they say that coming into
36:12
Speaker 1: a going into Pace right there into Pensacola's first and
36:15
Speaker 1: last chance bar for you to get liquor. But this
36:18
Speaker 1: was the first and last place chance for you to
36:20
Speaker 1: use the bathroom before you go through the tunnel. So
36:25
Speaker 1: I kind of knew the area or what, not to
36:29
Speaker 1: the extent that I learned it walking. But he had
36:33
Speaker 1: kept me in this abandoned house. I was spitting up
36:37
Speaker 1: blood and everything. It was really cold. It was in January, February,
36:39
Speaker 1: it's kind of cold up there in Pensacola area. So
36:47
Speaker 1: I was spitting up blood. I was having pains. My
36:49
Speaker 1: whole chest from where he had beat on me and
36:51
Speaker 1: everything else was just black. It was just pure black. Ribs,
36:56
Speaker 1: I had issues with ribs. I still have pain and
36:58
Speaker 1: problems with my ribs and everything because he broke my rib.
37:03
Speaker 1: And I was throwing up blood the whole nine yards,
37:06
Speaker 1: found this abandoned place, and he took me in there.
37:10
Speaker 3: He kept me down there for days, abusing me.
37:12
Speaker 1: That's where he cut my hand at and everything and
37:14
Speaker 1: tried to take my fingerprints off. And whenever, after, I
37:20
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't even know how many days we
37:22
Speaker 1: were down in there. It was, it had electricity. It
37:26
Speaker 1: was warm and it had a basement and there was
37:29
Speaker 1: a room on the left side and on the right side.
37:32
Speaker 1: And it kind of looked like a doctor or something
37:34
Speaker 1: stayed there and he had kept me in the room
37:37
Speaker 1: down below abusing me and then whenever a couple days
37:41
Speaker 1: had passed or whatever he had brought me out and
37:44
Speaker 1: we walked down and through a little trail and there
37:47
Speaker 1: was like an RV campground that had ponds and everything
37:51
Speaker 1: with it and I remember that we were in like
37:53
Speaker 1: a hunting box or something that was on the ground
37:56
Speaker 1: and I was so tired I was just he had
38:01
Speaker 1: just beat everything out of me You know, whenever they
38:03
Speaker 1: say that they beat you down and then build you up,
38:05
Speaker 1: I definitely was beat down. There was no building up.
38:10
Speaker 1: So he had heard somebody, so he punches me and
38:13
Speaker 1: he's like, come on, come on, we gotta go. So
38:15
Speaker 1: we end up through the trail. And then he waits
38:19
Speaker 1: there until dark and he puts leaves all over me
38:23
Speaker 1: and everything. And he's like, don't say anything, don't say anything.
38:27
Speaker 1: And I hear cars and I'm like, well, we must
38:30
Speaker 1: be by a highway or something. And so it starts
38:36
Speaker 1: getting dark. So we leave from there. And it was,
38:40
Speaker 1: it was a highway. And there was a school on
38:42
Speaker 1: the other side. And it was fenced in. Well, we
38:45
Speaker 1: cross the street and we're walking by. We're right out
38:47
Speaker 1: in the open. We're walking down the side of the
38:50
Speaker 1: road by this school and everything. And we walk on down.
38:54
Speaker 1: There's houses there and everything. And then there's like a
38:57
Speaker 1: break and there's like a subdivision back in there. But
39:01
Speaker 1: it wasn't built up yet or anything. There was still
39:04
Speaker 1: some wooded areas, but it was already, you know, when
39:06
Speaker 1: they first do their first step before they take all
39:09
Speaker 1: the trees and everything, they do the roads that go
39:12
Speaker 1: down and have cul-de-sacs and everything. So we end up
39:15
Speaker 1: going and we're on the, Kayla Crocker's trailer is on
39:19
Speaker 1: the left. We're on the right side of the road.
39:22
Speaker 1: And we're back in this subdivision and we're walking. And
39:25
Speaker 1: then we come down, it's like a little cul-de-sac and
39:29
Speaker 1: then a little dirt area and he sees her trailer
39:34
Speaker 1: through the little dirt area so and there's a wooded
39:37
Speaker 1: area right there to the left so he has a
39:39
Speaker 1: stop there and I'm not sure if he actually planned
39:44
Speaker 1: on going there or if he knew her or what
39:47
Speaker 1: because The next morning, whenever he kicks me awake, we
39:50
Speaker 1: end up walking across the street. It was really early morning,
39:54
Speaker 1: like 4, 35 o'clock in the morning. And I don't
39:58
Speaker 1: know because I don't have a watch on me, so
40:00
Speaker 1: I can't be exact or anything. But I do remember
40:03
Speaker 1: that the sun was starting to come up. We walked
40:05
Speaker 1: in front of the trailer, and then he heard something.
40:09
Speaker 1: So he scoots me, grabs me, and snatches me to
40:11
Speaker 1: the back part of the trailer. And then we walk around,
40:16
Speaker 1: and he hears the car start up. and the door
40:18
Speaker 1: was left open. So whenever that happened, then he looks
40:25
Speaker 1: to see if anyone's there, snatches me, and brings me there,
40:30
Speaker 1: opens the back door, tells me to put our stuff
40:32
Speaker 1: in there, and then he shoves me in there. But
40:34
Speaker 1: he's turning, he's at the driver's door, and he's turning
40:37
Speaker 1: the car off and taking the keys and putting them
40:39
Speaker 1: in his pocket. So, and then that happens with Kayla
40:43
Speaker 1: Crocker then. I'm putting the stuff in the car. He
40:46
Speaker 1: comes out. He closes the door. And then we leave
40:49
Speaker 1: from there. We go to a gas station. I just
40:53
Speaker 1: heard gunshots and everything. I can just imagine what took place,
40:59
Speaker 1: even though I don't know. So I'm worried about these people.
41:03
Speaker 1: I don't want nobody to die. Not if I can
41:06
Speaker 1: help it. If I can help you live, I'm going
41:09
Speaker 1: to help you live.
41:10
Speaker 2: Did you ask him why?
41:11
Speaker 1: I had already been abused. I'm already in... Going through
41:16
Speaker 1: all this.
41:17
Speaker 2: After that gunshot, did you ask him why he killed her?
41:19
Speaker 3: No.
41:19
Speaker 2: All right, sorry. Keep going. So from there, did you
41:24
Speaker 2: go to Alabama? Or from there, did you go to Georgia?
41:25
Speaker 1: There wasn't a lot of talking with him. And he
41:28
Speaker 1: kept me drugged up a lot. This is the FDLE
41:30
Speaker 1: report that they didn't want people to know. There are
41:33
Speaker 1: over one, two, three, four drugs in my system that
41:39
Speaker 1: proves that I was drugged up the whole time. When
41:41
Speaker 1: you're drugged up, You have, your body, like your mind
41:45
Speaker 1: goes in and out of things between reality and non-reality.
41:50
Speaker 1: Especially with the kind of drugs that I was on
41:52
Speaker 1: that he was giving me. Xanaxes, I would find out
41:55
Speaker 1: Dilata's he had me on because they were found in
41:57
Speaker 1: his bag and numerous things. So, and these were found
42:02
Speaker 1: in my system. You can have this as well. Thank you. Yeah.
42:08
Speaker 2: So from there, and I know we don't want to
42:10
Speaker 2: talk about the Alabama case because it's still active. Yes,
42:12
Speaker 2: I can. But from Beulah, did you go to Alabama,
42:15
Speaker 2: then Georgia, or was it just from Beulah to Georgia?
42:18
Speaker 2: So I guess my question is, what happened after Kayla Crocker?
42:24
Speaker 1: Okay, so after Kayla Crocker, we ended up going to
42:27
Speaker 1: the store. It was the store, Hardee's. Then we hit
42:34
Speaker 1: the interstate. We ended up in Baghdad. Then on out
42:39
Speaker 1: to Munson and on out to the four way. Then
42:42
Speaker 1: we took a right on out to Baker. Then we
42:46
Speaker 1: took a left. And then from there, I went out
42:49
Speaker 1: to we went and we stopped at a dollar general
42:54
Speaker 1: and I was able to get some shoes. I had
42:57
Speaker 1: been in heel boots this whole time. So I was
43:02
Speaker 1: not a willing participant at all. I was in heel boots,
43:08
Speaker 1: the heels this long. They had a, I don't remember
43:12
Speaker 1: if they were gray or white, but they were, you know,
43:16
Speaker 1: nice boots that came up to here. Not something that
43:18
Speaker 1: you're going to go trampling through the woods, doing a
43:21
Speaker 1: whole crime spree with or anything else.
43:23
Speaker 2: That was not.
43:26
Speaker 1: You know, so that's what I had on. But he
43:30
Speaker 1: finally told me that I could get some shoes because
43:33
Speaker 1: I was slowing him down. And he wanted some food.
43:38
Speaker 1: So he had me go in and buy some food
43:40
Speaker 1: and a pair of shoes, cheap shoes. Then from there,
43:46
Speaker 1: he had drugged me after that. And when I woke up,
43:51
Speaker 1: we were, he was at this, Motel, old hotel motel,
43:57
Speaker 1: you know, in the middle of nowhere.
44:00
Speaker 2: Walk me through that day and how things ended. Because
44:05
Speaker 2: that part slips my mind a little bit, whether you
44:08
Speaker 2: went out first or you went out after he fired.
44:11
Speaker 2: Walk me through that.
44:13
Speaker 1: I went out first. So what had happened was, so
44:18
Speaker 1: mind you, I wasn't willing to... let anyone bring attention
44:26
Speaker 1: to us or anything. But if the cops showed up
44:28
Speaker 1: on the scene, then he knows that I haven't called them,
44:33
Speaker 1: that they've caught up with you, that your time is up,
44:37
Speaker 1: you know? So, and it's gonna be hard for him
44:40
Speaker 1: to make a phone call whenever they're right there, you know?
44:43
Speaker 1: So that day, he had got me up and, He
44:49
Speaker 1: was like, he wanted us to go to the little
44:51
Speaker 1: store that we had passed down the road. And he
44:56
Speaker 1: had me drive. This was the only time that I drove.
44:58
Speaker 1: He said he was gonna trust me. And he had
45:01
Speaker 1: me drive. And he was in the seat beside me
45:04
Speaker 1: and he had it laid all the way back. And
45:06
Speaker 1: he was like, all right, I'm gonna trust you to
45:08
Speaker 1: go in here. I'm gonna trust you to get something
45:10
Speaker 1: to eat. He said, but I'm gonna be watching you.
45:13
Speaker 1: And he said, look, I'm not playing with you. I'm
45:15
Speaker 1: not playing with anyone. He said, it's an old country store.
45:19
Speaker 1: I know there's not a lot of people in there.
45:21
Speaker 1: I will shoot everybody. I will kill you. And I
45:24
Speaker 1: will make sure that your family dies. If it's the
45:26
Speaker 1: last thing that I do in this world. And he,
45:31
Speaker 1: whenever I go to turn into the store, he jumps
45:34
Speaker 1: out of the car and he goes like into the
45:37
Speaker 1: little wooded area right there. So I pull in, I
45:41
Speaker 1: pull in by a gas pump. I go in, I
45:44
Speaker 1: get something. I think it was like hot dogs and
45:48
Speaker 1: something And then I go pay for it. I get
45:52
Speaker 1: the gas, I get in the car. And then when
45:55
Speaker 1: I come out, I go around the store and there's
45:58
Speaker 1: a four-way. He's already made it from here all the
46:01
Speaker 1: way to the woods over here. And he comes running
46:04
Speaker 1: out and he gets in the car and the seat's
46:06
Speaker 1: laid back and he's acting crazy, you know, but he
46:10
Speaker 1: acted crazy a lot. All the demons in his head
46:13
Speaker 1: and everything that's going on. I don't think he ever slept.
46:16
Speaker 1: He was always on spice. You know, and spice does
46:19
Speaker 1: something to your head. You know, you've heard of people
46:21
Speaker 1: eating people's faces off on spice. So there's no telling,
46:25
Speaker 1: you know, what kind of stuff he's going through in
46:28
Speaker 1: his own mind, let alone what kind of wrath he's
46:31
Speaker 1: fixing to put on me or even these innocent people.
46:34
Speaker 1: So I have to take that into consideration. So we
46:38
Speaker 1: leave from there. We end up back at the motel.
46:40
Speaker 1: I get out.
46:41
Speaker 2: I go in.
46:41
Speaker 1: I put the stuff away. in the room he comes
46:45
Speaker 1: out shortly behind me he sits in the car for
46:47
Speaker 1: a minute and then comes in and then he makes
46:51
Speaker 1: a concoction has me drink it or what then I'm
46:56
Speaker 1: sitting there it takes a little while you know take
46:59
Speaker 1: effect so but I'm groggy already from previous stuff that
47:05
Speaker 1: he's given me and I pass out And then he
47:09
Speaker 1: wakes me up and he's freaking out. And he's like,
47:12
Speaker 1: oh my God, the cops are here.
47:14
Speaker 2: The cops are here. They're everywhere.
47:15
Speaker 1: He's like, look out the window. And I'm like, okay.
47:20
Speaker 1: So I get there and I slowly put my hand
47:25
Speaker 1: there and slide the curtain over. And I'm like, yeah,
47:28
Speaker 1: cops are here. There's a whole lot of them. And
47:31
Speaker 1: then I close it. I didn't wave. I didn't do
47:34
Speaker 1: all this crazy stuff that they said. No, I opened
47:37
Speaker 1: the curtain slowly. And then I closed it and then
47:41
Speaker 1: I fell down beside the bed. And so he's freaking out.
47:46
Speaker 1: They end up calling his name and he takes the
47:49
Speaker 1: mattress and he lifts it up over me. And like
47:53
Speaker 1: when he first walked in, there was like a little
47:55
Speaker 1: closet that poked out and then the bathroom was back here.
48:00
Speaker 1: But there was like a little wall area right there.
48:03
Speaker 1: And then the bed was here. So he lifts it
48:05
Speaker 1: over and he puts the mattress standing up against the wall.
48:10
Speaker 1: And I'm on the other side and I'm like, now's
48:13
Speaker 1: my chance because I can run out and I can
48:16
Speaker 1: tell them, you know, to contact my family, my kids,
48:19
Speaker 1: the whole nine yards. You know, I have a I
48:22
Speaker 1: have a chance now and like a real chance because there's. Thousands,
48:28
Speaker 1: you know, so before he's thinking of his life right now,
48:33
Speaker 1: he's not thinking of that phone call because there's over
48:36
Speaker 1: a thousand officers out there. And that's what goes through
48:39
Speaker 1: my head. Now is my chance. I didn't have a
48:43
Speaker 1: chance before, but now I do. So I make it
48:46
Speaker 1: out the door. And whenever I do, I start immediately
48:50
Speaker 1: telling them. about my kids, the whole nine yards. I mean,
48:53
Speaker 1: I'm letting them know, you know, he's threatened my kids.
48:56
Speaker 1: Someone's watching my kids. That was the first things out
48:59
Speaker 1: of my mouth was my children. And he has someone
49:03
Speaker 1: watching my children, you know? And then I never heard
49:07
Speaker 1: the shot. They took me to a detective like van
49:13
Speaker 1: thing or whatever else. And they wanted me to tell
49:15
Speaker 1: them what all had been going on. I told them
49:18
Speaker 1: about the rapes and everything. about being drugged. I was
49:22
Speaker 1: showing them the bruises and the cuts, the burns. They
49:25
Speaker 1: took me immediately to the hospital, immediately. So when I
49:30
Speaker 1: got there, it was Kelly Ellington, or lieutenant or whatever
49:37
Speaker 1: she was, Ellington was there. She took pictures of everything.
49:42
Speaker 1: She came in and told me that he had killed himself.
49:45
Speaker 1: I wasn't even there for him for any of that.
49:49
Speaker 1: I never even heard a gunshot.
49:50
Speaker 2: What was your thought when you found that out?
49:54
Speaker 1: Thank God. Thank God.
50:01
Speaker 2: When you sit here and think about it all and
50:04
Speaker 2: you think about what was presented to his victims' families,
50:11
Speaker 2: how would you tell them or try to convince them
50:14
Speaker 2: that you were not a willing participant in helping him?
50:18
Speaker 1: I wish I had the chance to testify and to
50:23
Speaker 1: defend myself and to tell the truth and tell the story.
50:29
Speaker 1: Because at one point, whenever the investigators had investigated, had
50:34
Speaker 1: me in the room talking and everything else, they were like, oh,
50:40
Speaker 1: you're lying about this. And I've seen that for the
50:43
Speaker 1: first time when I was at trial with the video.
50:47
Speaker 1: I'd never seen it before. I'd never seen how messed
50:50
Speaker 1: up I was. I knew that I was in and
50:53
Speaker 1: out of reality and consciousness and talking to these people.
50:58
Speaker 1: One minute I was there with you, the next minute
51:00
Speaker 1: I was in La La Land somewhere. You can literally
51:03
Speaker 1: see that on this video, how drugged I was, even
51:08
Speaker 1: at that point, hours later, after I got from the
51:13
Speaker 1: hospital to the sheriff's department, you know, they took me
51:17
Speaker 1: directly in there. I still hadn't eaten. I had food
51:20
Speaker 1: sitting there beside me and they're questioning me, you know,
51:24
Speaker 1: and I'm just wanting to breathe for a second, you know,
51:29
Speaker 1: but they're grilling me and I'm in and out of
51:32
Speaker 1: reality and everything. So some things were not as it seemed.
51:39
Speaker 1: So had they waited and asked me when I was
51:42
Speaker 1: completely sober, it would have been different. Had I been
51:46
Speaker 1: able to get on the stand and tell my testimony,
51:51
Speaker 1: they would have been able to hear the truth, you know?
51:53
Speaker 1: And had I been able to participate in any of
51:58
Speaker 1: my case, then I wouldn't have all these grounds, you know,
52:02
Speaker 1: where council was insignificant for failing to change venue. I'd
52:08
Speaker 1: asked him since my case was so highly publicized, no offense,
52:13
Speaker 1: because y'all put a lot of it out there. But
52:17
Speaker 1: I mean, this is, this is all, this is just
52:20
Speaker 1: what I got being in prison. Imagine what else was
52:23
Speaker 1: out there on the news and everything else, pages and pages,
52:27
Speaker 1: you know, this is, So much media with everything that
52:31
Speaker 1: I asked. I asked them, can we please go somewhere
52:34
Speaker 1: else to where I could do the trial? No, no, no,
52:37
Speaker 1: we have to do it here. We have to at
52:39
Speaker 1: least give it a chance to pick a jury here
52:42
Speaker 1: and everything else. We can't just up and move. I
52:46
Speaker 1: had at one point motion to restrict the media. You know,
52:50
Speaker 1: no offense again, but it was such a big thing
52:53
Speaker 1: that I had this in place for a reason.
52:56
Speaker 3: So.
52:57
Speaker 1: Mr. Brooks decided he was gonna take this off. He'd
53:01
Speaker 1: never discussed it with me, never anything. He just decided
53:04
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, him working with the state, whatever it
53:07
Speaker 1: was that he got off of whatever, he took it off.
53:12
Speaker 1: But we went through all that to get it on
53:14
Speaker 1: just for you to say, oh, no, okay, we'll let
53:17
Speaker 1: them do whatever. And then like pages from the jury,
53:25
Speaker 1: I mean, I had 73, 73 or 74 jurors that
53:30
Speaker 1: we went through. I had never been in trouble before
53:33
Speaker 1: with the law. So I didn't know this whole process.
53:37
Speaker 1: I really didn't know the law or anything. My family
53:40
Speaker 1: trusted Mr. Brooks. I was raised with Mr. Brooks. We
53:44
Speaker 1: went to the same church together. I was brought up
53:47
Speaker 1: with his children, you know. So I trusted that he
53:51
Speaker 1: was going to do what he said he was going
53:53
Speaker 1: to do. 73 of these people. So 19 of them
53:58
Speaker 1: had not heard anything about it, except for very little.
54:03
Speaker 1: Only three were picked for my jury. Everybody else, highly publicized, knew.
54:10
Speaker 1: Either they lived by Kayla Crocker, they were part, I
54:13
Speaker 1: even had, a lot of them had family that was
54:16
Speaker 1: in the sheriff's department. One of them was a paralegal,
54:19
Speaker 1: worked in the building or close by. One of them
54:23
Speaker 1: was a nurse that actually seen me when I was
54:26
Speaker 1: in Santa Rosa County, you know, had interacted with me
54:29
Speaker 1: and everything.
54:30
Speaker 2: We have less than five minutes left, so I'm going
54:31
Speaker 2: to ask you a couple of quick questions, and I
54:32
Speaker 2: don't mean to interrupt, but I want to hear your
54:35
Speaker 2: thoughts on these. You know, from your perspective, this whole
54:39
Speaker 2: thing was about trying to make sure your kids weren't hurt.
54:42
Speaker 2: Have you been able to see your kids since all
54:45
Speaker 2: of this happened?
54:46
Speaker 1: I have, and I've been able to meet my grandchildren. Okay.
54:50
Speaker 2: What is that like and how do you have conversations
54:53
Speaker 2: with them after all of this has gone down?
54:56
Speaker 1: My kids know me and my kids know that I
54:59
Speaker 1: didn't do this because my kids do know me because
55:02
Speaker 1: I was a mom. So they went through a lot.
55:06
Speaker 1: They had to switch schools and stuff and everything. My
55:10
Speaker 1: 14 year old has passed away since I've been in here.
55:12
Speaker 1: He got into a motorcycle accident. It was hard on
55:15
Speaker 1: my daughter. My oldest son at first didn't know what
55:18
Speaker 1: to think. But they know their mom, this is not
55:21
Speaker 1: their mom.
55:23
Speaker 2: Do you have a hope of reuniting with them someday?
55:25
Speaker 3: Yes.
55:26
Speaker 2: Outside of here?
55:27
Speaker 1: Yes. Yes, I do. And I'm going to carry that
55:30
Speaker 1: with me. God has made a promise to me that,
55:35
Speaker 1: you know, he's going to bring things to light and
55:37
Speaker 1: that he's going to allow me to go home. And
55:40
Speaker 1: I hope that sooner than later. But I'm just waiting
55:44
Speaker 1: on him. And until then, I'm going to continue to
55:47
Speaker 1: tell my story. I'm going to continue to, you know,
55:51
Speaker 1: fight for what is right. I mean, if I had
55:54
Speaker 1: done something, then okay, I could sit here and deal
55:57
Speaker 1: with this, you know. But I didn't. And the person
56:00
Speaker 1: who did killed himself. And I shouldn't be here paying
56:04
Speaker 1: for his crimes.
56:05
Speaker 2: And I'm going to circle back to the very beginning
56:08
Speaker 2: with this. I asked you who you were before all
56:11
Speaker 2: of this started. And a lot of people see him
56:14
Speaker 2: as a monster.
56:15
Speaker 1: He was.
56:15
Speaker 2: And they associate you with that because of everything that
56:18
Speaker 2: went down. What do you want the people to know
56:20
Speaker 2: about who you are?
56:23
Speaker 1: So I was a kind person. I was a mom.
56:28
Speaker 1: I'm still kind. I'm still pushing forward. I'm a survivor.
56:33
Speaker 1: I care about people's well-being. I know the people that
56:39
Speaker 1: know me. know who I am and what I'm about.
56:44
Speaker 1: People that don't know me, if you were able to
56:47
Speaker 1: sit down and talk to me even for a minute,
56:49
Speaker 1: you would see that I'm not this person that the
56:52
Speaker 1: media and everybody portrayed me to be.
56:55
Speaker 2: Do you have another hearing coming up? I know that
56:58
Speaker 2: the original appeal was denied and your conviction was upheld.
57:01
Speaker 2: Do you have anything else coming up?
57:03
Speaker 1: So my 3850 was denied and then we put in
57:08
Speaker 1: for a rehearing. and we made the cutoff and everything.
57:11
Speaker 1: And it's been three years, and they still have not
57:14
Speaker 1: contacted us about the rehearing or anything else. So yes,
57:18
Speaker 1: we are definitely pushing forward. Rachel can tell you more
57:21
Speaker 1: about all that and everything else because she's my lawyer,
57:26
Speaker 1: of course. So Jeremy? The only question I have is
57:29
Speaker 1: if you could talk to yourself before all this went down,
57:32
Speaker 1: or you could talk to somebody who might be going.
57:35
Speaker 2: Through a similar experience, what would you say? Like what
57:42
Speaker 2: advice would you give yourself if you could go back and.
57:47
Speaker 1: Talk to yourself before all this happened? Before all this
57:51
Speaker 1: went down, before you met him? I wish I had
57:56
Speaker 1: never wrote him the first time. I wish I had
57:59
Speaker 1: discussed things with my brother before I ever even wrote him.
58:05
Speaker 1: But that's not the case. So you can't turn back time.
58:09
Speaker 1: I would tell people to be careful who they let
58:13
Speaker 1: around them. Absolutely. So my friend Jeff was a great person,
58:18
Speaker 1: still is a great person. I trust him with my life.
58:22
Speaker 1: But his friends are not necessarily great people. Maybe to
58:27
Speaker 1: him they are, but not to me. So to be
58:30
Speaker 1: very careful what you do in life. and to try
58:35
Speaker 1: to make the right decisions on whenever you have people's
58:38
Speaker 1: lives in your hands.
58:40
Speaker 2: Do you need any cutaways while we wrap up? Say
58:45
Speaker 2: I don't try to be respectful of the time that
58:49
Speaker 2: they give us. Is there anything else? I know we
58:52
Speaker 2: tried to go fast through a lot of these things.
58:53
Speaker 2: I hit on a lot of points while he's shooting
58:55
Speaker 2: these last couple shots. Is there anything else that you
58:57
Speaker 2: think is important for me to know for the Northwest
58:59
Speaker 2: Florida community to know for the victims families to know?
59:03
Speaker 1: So I do so William Boyette had he had so
59:14
Speaker 1: he's hurt so many people I found this out afterwards
59:16
Speaker 1: you know since I've been in here and I've been
59:18
Speaker 1: digging up stuff and I've been researching stuff and everything
59:21
Speaker 1: else I'll let you have this copy as well so
59:25
Speaker 1: just How could they keep letting this man out? His
59:29
Speaker 1: mom and them were connected. You know, like his stepdad
59:33
Speaker 1: was part of this community or what. And they golfed
59:39
Speaker 1: all the time and everything. They were like high society.
59:41
Speaker 1: You know, his mom actually funded the whole trip. And
59:46
Speaker 1: his mom rented the SUV and everything that he traveled
59:50
Speaker 1: everywhere with.